TVs have never really been something that I've been massively into, but my lovely wife was perusing Yahoo Auctions and we came across two items we had to have. The first was this little portable guy.

As the front clearly states, it's a National Ranger-505 IC Transistor portable TV. To be honest, I know very little about this little gem, but it's pretty cool. On the back you have the standard inputs for an antenna as well as horizontal/vertical adjustments, and a battery compartment that takes nine(!) D cells.

The real party piece of this guy though is that we won the auction for one yen. Yup, one yen. That's the equivalent of 0.0096 USD, 0.011 AUD or 0.0058 GBP. Cheap in other words, haha.

The second guy we won is by far the coolest thing I've bought on Yahoo Auctions, maybe ever. I apologize for the lack of quality pictures, the next time I'm home with the sun out, I'll grab some new pictures in natural light.

Ya, that thing is awesome! It's an old General 16SE (TS-1609A). I can find precisely zero English information about the TV, so it might have been a domestic only set.

Just look at those knobs! The channel knob in particular is just awesome!

One of my favorite things about this TV though is that on the bottom and back side, there are access panels that you can remove by just rotating a little clip. Here's the bottom one.

And with the bottom panel removed. I love the mayhem and madness of all the components hiding about in there.

Here's the back panel.

And with it removed. It's surprisingly empty on this side.

A close up look at some of the vacuum tubes.

Now, I misunderstood how the seller described the auction (a fault of my Japanese ability, not his writing). I thought he said the picture tube works and the audio is wonky, but it's actually backwards. The picture doesn't come on, but the audio is supposed to work. However, when I plugged it in and flipped the power switch, nothing happened. The whole thing was motionless. I'm not scared though, because on the inside of the back access panel was this little pouch.

And inside that pouch was a full wiring diagram for the TV! Time to start chasing down wires and finding faults!

Here she is stuffed into the corner where she'll live for the time being. Compared to my 42 inch flat screen in the corner, it looks so small. It does have infinitely more style though!

I'm pretty excited about it to say the least. On the next warm day, we'll take it outside, clean it out and get some proper pictures in the sun!

Great price on the Ranger! Does it function properly? Or have you not tried it yet on account of 9 D-Cell batteries?

The General TV is very badass! The motionless issue: What happens when you plug it in and turn it on exactly? With the back panel off, do you see any tubes lighting/heating up? If you put your hand on the tube base, can you feel vibration? There are a number of things that could be wrong, but if your tubes are getting power, that is a great sign. If not, the power supply could be kaput.

Here's a TV my family has has since new. It used to be my moms.It is your average run of the mill small black and white 12" RCA TV.the model is either model AGR120Y or AJR120Y - The labels are missing (fell off)It is made in Taiwan.Still has the original manuals.

Managed to find this 1976 Toshiba Blackstripe C355C 13" Color TV. I Bought it at an estate sale in February 2014. i already have a mint red cabinet of this same set, but I said what the heck ! Too rare to pass up !It is in real nice shape, a bit yellowed ontop because the owner had a 1980's Samsung cable box on it (which I took as well)The set also came with the pedestal and owners manual.Here's a few pics and video.

Picked up this set today.It is a 1972 Panasonic TR-542AC B&W TV. This was the first TV made with touch sensing ON/OFF power swtich. very nice Space age red cabinet design.Made in Japan.Found it locally from the original owner. Also came with all manuals.

Picked up this little 1975 JVC Model 3020 Portable recently.It is a 5" black and white set with blue cabinet. It also came in red.This also has a battery compartment on the bottom that uses 9 D Cell battery.Made in Yokohama JapanNice collectible tv.

Picked this up this week.1976 RCA model CA 097A 9 inch TVThese small sets came with a battery pack in the bottom that holds 2 large batteries. The front plexi cover comes off.These came in yellow, red, and white cabinets.Made in Taiwan.

Here's a 1980 Hitachi model CT-1302 13" color TV.Made in Singapore. Found it for free.Seems like it needs some adjustments or tuner cleaning.Not the greatest of quality.The plastic white tool is for the V.Hold adjustment.

Had bought a storage unit in 2007 in Arkansas that had literally the entire contents of an older TV repair shop. Had replacement tubes, repairman tube carrying cases, portable tvs, console tv's, very early betamax vcrs, you name it.

Sold stuff out of that unit for months until I got tired of it and put the rest on craigslist for free pickup. Some hispanic fellows came in a truck and trailer, and loaded the entire unit up, and drove 2 hours home - they could only go 40mph they were so overloaded.

I didn't even think people collected the smaller TV's. Guess I should have done a better job of doing my homework.

_________________You hold all the keys, you know all the roads,Why don't you guide me in if I'm such a lost soul?Audioslave - Revelations